Heads confirmed yesterday the prop forward had asked publishers Pan Macmillan to scrap his second book, Hard road - Tough thoughts on a tough game, despite the impending release and review copies already made available to journalists.

''I couldn't possibly gazump him on that [decision],'' Heads said yesterday. ''It was a big call, and it was his call. I honestly don't know the reason why.''

Webcke is now an assistant coach at the Broncos but in the book he is critical of the club.

The book has a chapter entitled Broncos behaving badly in which he questions the Broncos' handling of the 2008 nightclub scandal, where there were sexual assault allegations against three players.

Webcke said the accused players should never have been allowed to play in the finals series match against the Storm shortly thereafter.

''As far as I'm concerned, their behaviour went far beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable,'' Webcke said in the book.

He went on to say, ''Meanwhile at the Broncos, something that really narked me was that even as a storm raged around the three players involved in the Alhambra Lounge incident, it simply didn't appear to be important to them. They were seen laughing and carrying on as if nothing had happened.''

The sequence of events left Webcke, who attended the match against the Storm ''not really caring if they won or not''.

In another chapter, How the game failed Joey, a reference to Newcastle great Andrew Johns's battle with drugs and depression, Webcke maintains that the Knights, the NRL and the ARL administration ''all the way to the top'' knew about Johns's ''lifestyle and problems''.

Webcke and his agent Chris White of International Quarterback could not be contacted yesterday. AAP